FanHouse Heat

ORLANDO -- Even when he struggles -- and he struggled badly Wednesday night -- Dwyane Wade will find a way to win games for the Miami Heat.

It's what the great ones do.

Wade rarely shoots this poorly -- six of 22 from the field -- but he still had the Orlando Magic defense on a string, reacting to his every move, opening the door again for his sometimes-forgotten, oft-maligned teammates.

"He just did it with his intelligence at the end,'' said Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra. "He's been in this situation so many times before.''

---

---

ORLANDO -- Miami's Dwyane Wade just raised the intrigue -- and opened a world of possibilities -- over his pending free agency when he was asked Wednesday afternoon who he really would like to play with in the NBA.

Wade will become an unrestricted free agent this summer, allowing him to play anywhere he wants.

"If I could pick one player in the league today to play with -- and most people think I'd say LeBron James -- I would pick Dwight (Howard)," Wade told FanHouse Wednesday after practice at Amway Arena. "I'd love for that to happen at some point. Dwight is already close right here in Orlando. People who say it couldn't happen (us playing on the same team), they don't know. I've learned in this league that anything is possible."

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh might want to wait. Jerry Colangelo is willing to let them do so.

James, Wade and Bosh all can become free agents next summer, which has clouded their chances of playing for Team USA in the World Championships in Turkey, Aug. 28-Sept. 12. But Colangelo, chairman of USA Basketball, sees a scenario in which the three still could play even if they might not be available for the team's minicamp in Las Vegas during the third week of July.

"There is a gap between the minicamp and when they have to be back [for a training camp beginning in Las Vegas around Aug. 10],'' Colangelo said in an interview Monday with FanHouse. "That's about three weeks. I could see them getting all their business done by then.''

A four-time scoring champ leading Mike D'Antoni's up-tempo offense? It looked like a match made in heaven on paper, but the Knicks have apparently decided the intangibles surrounding Allen Iverson -- including ugly exits with two teams in the span of seven months -- outweighed the potential gains.

According to Howard Beck of the New York Times, the Knicks went back and forth on the issue, with a team source suggesting Thursday afternoon there was a 90 percent chance the team would offer a contract. Ultimately, however, the team's brain trust decided that "Iverson posed too great a risk" -- a damning indictment if there ever was one, considering the 2-7 Knicks are currently on pace for a 15-win season.

MILWAUKEE -- As the New Jersey Nets are ringing up losses, Scott Hastings has a vested interest.

Hastings, you see, was on the expansion 1988-89 Miami Heat that set the record for most losses to start an NBA season at 17. So Hastings is hoping the Nets will knock the Heat out of the record book, right?

Try again.

"Absolutely not,'' Hastings said. "We were a bad team. We deserved our record, and I'm disappointed any time anybody gets close. Go Nets.''

Some people never learn. D.J. Mbenga may be one of them.

Now, D.J. is a good guy and he makes a decent living as the backup center for world champion Los Angeles Lakers, but there's a reason he's a backup center. Besides a talent deficiency, Mbenga is not quick and therefore slow to rotate on help defense and recover on pick-and-rolls.

This often puts him in an awkward position, that position being Mbenga on a poster on his keister.

Such was the case again Friday when Nuggets rookie Ty Lawson went medieval on Mbenga.

(The pair of pliers and the blowtorch after the jump.)

DENVER -- LeBron James is the first choice. But Chris Bosh certainly would be a solid backup for the Miami Heat next summer in free agency.

And he's willing to consider it.

The Heat, which figures to have more than $15 million of salary-cap room, is looking for a superstar to pair with Dwyane Wade. And Wade, who talked last week about possibly luring James to South Florida while also mentioning Bosh, is positioning himself as a recruiter.

"Anything is possible, I guess,'' Bosh, the Toronto star who can become a free agent next summer, told FanHouse in an interview before Tuesday's game at Denver about the possibility of going to Miami. "I guess that seems to be an attractive place, you know, playing with Dwyane and playing in Miami and everything. I guess if they had the right chemistry, the right guys, that they could persuade guys to get there. But we'll see.''

The Nets have had a string of injuries take away their chance to be at all relevant the first part of this season, and in fact, they were winless through nine games heading into Miami to face Dwyane Wade and the Heat on Saturday. They appeared to have a chance to get their first win of the season, though, thanks to a sluggish effort from a Miami team that was missing Jermaine O'Neal from the start, and Mario Chalmers after five minutes due to injury.

New Jersey led by three with 30 seconds remaining, before Quentin Richardson accidentally banked in a three-pointer to tie the game at 78. The Nets got the lead back, thanks to a tip-in from Brook Lopez with just under four seconds remaining.

But unfortunately for the Nets, Dwyane Wade plays for the Heat. And even though he hadn't made a shot the entire second half, he drained a three with 0.1 left on the game clock to make sure that New Jersey stayed winless.

Video after the jump(er).

ORLANDO -- LeBron James can stop wearing his No. 23 if he wants -- in deference to Michael Jordan -- but asking the rest of the league to follow his lead is only showing his immaturity.

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy was asked Friday morning about James' request, and he didn't hesitate to say he thinks the idea is misplaced.

"It's a nice gesture, but he (Jordan) is not Jackie Robinson. Baseball did it because it had historical significance,'' Van Gundy said. "There actually were guys before Michael who could play the game. Then you should retire numbers that (Bill) Russell, Wilt (Chamberlain), and certainly Oscar (Robertson) wore. I understand LeBron didn't grow up watching those guys, but still. ''